The Home Oral Language Activities (HOLA) Program

Building parent partnerships for academic success

Authors

  • Fern Westernoff Toronto District School Board

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v5i1.97

Keywords:

Early intervention, English Language Learners (ELL), Home language, Interprofessional, Kindergarten, parent

Abstract

The Home Oral Language Activities (HOLA) Program is an interprofessional initiative that was developed at the Toronto District School Board to enhance parent-teacher partnerships. This unique story bag program encourages parents of young children to use the home language in authentic communication to help develop language concepts related to numbers and numeracy as a way to support school success. This article presents a description of the HOLA Program and its implementation with Kindergarten and Grade 1 students in two different schools. Feedback from teachers, parents, and students, in addition to an inventory analysis post-pilot is discussed. An update on the development and implementation of the program is provided.

Author Biography

  • Fern Westernoff, Toronto District School Board

    Fern Westernoff is a speech-language pathologist with over 25 years’ experience working with children and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds in the Toronto District School Board. She has presented and published widely on the topic of communication disorders and English language learners, and participated in the development of position papers regarding service delivery to diverse populations (Canadian Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and The College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario).

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Published

2014-03-29

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Westernoff, F. (2014). The Home Oral Language Activities (HOLA) Program: Building parent partnerships for academic success. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 5(1), 97-114. https://doi.org/10.1558/jircd.v5i1.97